This is something that interests me a lot. Music's aesthetic content reveals itself only on repeated listening, and only to minds with sufficient receptive abilities; in less conceited past times I used to think that others didn't experience what I did because they just hadn't by chance listened to a great work repeatedly, but this is complete garbage.
I remember being 14 in my music high school class when the teacher played the Mozart Clarinet quintet opening bars for the severalth time, this being one of the studied works. The flood of this music's power and beauty was such that I could hardly move to turn my head toward the other class members (only half a dozen) to see if they were getting this shocking and completely unique experience: it was a private experience but I wanted to acknowledge a little with the others what I later understood as its inter-subjectivity.
However I don't think they felt anything, nor the teacher- and I'm pretty sure about this.
It put me in parallel universe, one which I'd already long been suspecting.
Another example a year before was a friend who'd had the opening of Sibelius Second played him in class. I played my recording (the fantastic Monteux) just by chance while he was at mine and he reacted with instant derision and contempt.
People are fundamentally different- some are more conscious and some less, like it or not.
My first experience though was with the Pastoral symphony at 13, playing the (Steinberg) LP by chance simply because I had no other discs to play, when the power and enormity of the opening movement's aesthetic experience crept up on me.
You should definitely give Debussy's Pelleas and Melisande a shot.
Sean, I agree with you absolutely. Your experiences from your teenage years were very similar to mine.
While some classical works can be very appealing on first hearing, many require repeated hearings to grasp fully.
I do a classical music appreciation class at a nursing home in New Rochelle near New York for residents there, and though most like what I play, there's one lady who is very set in her ways and hates almost anything written in the 20th century except Rachmaninov, who is her favorite composer.
She also loves Tchaikovsky and other Romantic era composers. But if you play things like Shostakovich, Prokofiev or Schoenberg etc, she absolutely hates it. She doesn't even like Mahler !
I've played works by Nielsen, Khatchaturian, Martinu, and other composers which I and the rest of the class really enjoyed, but she hates them, and doesn't want to give them repeated hearings. I guess there's no accounting for taste.
It's happened to me so many times. I didn't understand a work until I got the chance to hear it repeatedly.
The great thing about Sean's posts is that their true meaning only reveals itself upon repeated readings 0:)
Quote from: Herman on February 23, 2009, 12:40:16 AM
You should definitely give Debussy's Pelleas and Melisande a shot.
Expertly played!
Quote from: Herman on February 23, 2009, 12:40:16 AM
You should definitely give Debussy's Pelleas and Melisande a shot.
(http://visibility911.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/firing_squad_2.jpg)
Quote from: Superhorn on February 23, 2009, 07:15:44 AM
Sean, I agree with you absolutely. Your experiences from your teenage years were very similar to mine.
While some classical works can be very appealing on first hearing, many require repeated hearings to grasp fully.
I do a classical music appreciation class at a nursing home in New Rochelle near New York for residents there, and though most like what I play, there's one lady who is very set in her ways and hates almost anything written in the 20th century except Rachmaninov, who is her favorite composer.
She also loves Tchaikovsky and other Romantic era composers. But if you play things like Shostakovich, Prokofiev or Schoenberg etc, she absolutely hates it. She doesn't even like Mahler !
I've played works by Nielsen, Khatchaturian, Martinu, and other composers which I and the rest of the class really enjoyed, but she hates them, and doesn't want to give them repeated hearings. I guess there's no accounting for taste.
It's happened to me so many times. I didn't understand a work until I got the chance to hear it repeatedly.
Thanks Superhorn. I must have been in a foul mood writing that post. By the way William Byrd was one of the first to underline that music only really emerges in the mind after repeated listenings.
Not sure about the Pelleas bit guys...
Beethoven's late string quartets and Wagner's last four operas reveal new things to me every time I listen. Maybe that's why I play them so much.
If it really takes you more than one listen to "get" music— well, I feel sorry for you. I'm able to fully grasp it upon first listen. I guess some people are just more conscious than others.
A gift? Nay, a curse, I say, but one I must bear for humanity's sake. Woe is me!
::)
Quote from: aquariuswb on February 24, 2009, 04:39:46 PM
If it really takes you more than one listen to "get" music— well, I feel sorry for you. I'm able to fully grasp it upon first listen. I guess some people are just more conscious than others.
You have no idea what music is, nor are you capable of knowing. You're really on the wrong forum. Why don't you find something you feel some affinity for?
Quote from: aquariuswb on February 24, 2009, 04:39:46 PM
If it really takes you more than one listen to "get" music— well, I feel sorry for you. I'm able to fully grasp it upon first listen. I guess some people are just more conscious than others.
Really? Pieces I find pleasing on first hearing are usually the ones that don't stand up to much further close listening. It is those I "get" on the third or fourth go round that stick with and speak to me (for what I believe will be) forever.
And it is you who I feel sorry for...if you understand a piece entirely immediately, you lose any joy in the new sort discovery Andy describes.
Quote from: Sean on February 24, 2009, 05:43:24 PM
You have no idea what music is, nor are you capable of knowing. You're really on the wrong forum. Why don't you find something you feel some affinity for?
No, I'm just a very
efficient listener!
Peace.